Hi Nancy,

Yes, oak is out. Very out. Extremely out. It says "80's," and that is not the thing houses need to be saying. In 25 or so years, oak will be back, as the new "retro" look. It will be rediscovered and adored, again. But not yet.

Trends swing, and if you know that, you can predict the next one. Oak= light  golden-honey flooring. SWING TO...... Dark flooring or very light floooring...such as the finishes you describe. I personally push dark flooring woth a greeny undertone...it hasn't seen it's heyday, and will have a longevity far past the dark cherry. Another floor you see in magazines but not often in real life is the bamboo floor. That one will be around a long time, due to it's appeal as a renewable resource and it's healthier reduction in chemical processing (no formaldehyde). Everyone is going green. Bamboo is here for a long time. The texture you speak of is called  the 'hand-scraped" look. Very upper-end presently, but it's coming down to Earth.

The present finish that is "in" is the oil-rubbed bronze look (it used to be very 70's...along with the antiqued look that is all the rage once again). That, too, is going to poop out soon enough. The second wind is never as long as the first. But right this moment, it is the finish of choice for the present market. I personally do not use this finish if I can help it. I prefer wrought iron. Again...it's not saturated within the market. When people see it, they are not struck with a specific era. It's timeless. I prefer timeless. But the next look, whether I like it or not, is copper. We are going to see it all over the place. It's starting with the hammered copper sinks, countertops, and even aplliances such as copper refrigerators.

Ceiling consistency is still up for grabs. Pure white ceilings is not what most folks are doing in new construction in the upper-end. The ceiling is usually a color that compliments the trim, cutomized toward one shade darker. Homeowners, however, are choosing color for their ceilings, and customizing the color to the wall paint. It's nearly always 1/4 of the formula of the wall color for the ceiling. Don't do this for some colors... light burgundy is hot pink, for example. Use a neutral ceiling in rooms with strong wall color.

Absolutely, the color scheme should flow! Especially when staging. Color transitions should be pleasantly calibrated between rooms. That means lean warms into warms and cools into cools, basically. No hard jolts between light and dark shades. ALWAYS factor in the fixed elements (elements that won't be changing for a long, long time) such as granite, brick & stone.  If you have a khaki-greeny granite, don't choose a rosy tan wall. Pick a greeny tan, or an off-white with a greeny tan undertone, or a brown with a greeny undertone. Follow the lead established by the fixed elements. Harmonizing with them makes them look better, and that is what people are buying... the entire house, and all it's surfaces. 

And yes, you absolutely should be matching all metals. They are the "jewelry" of the house. You don't wear gold and silver simultaneously, I'm betting. Don't do that to the house, either.

Exterior colors are largely dictated by ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, NEIGHBORHOOD, and REGION OF THE COUNTRY. When you have a house to paint, research it's architectural style, and you should find out lots of things about what colors are traditional. There is no one-scheme-fits-all. You should factor in the roof color and the brick, if any, before you can even pick a beige. Try reading this article by my sister, Sue. It has a bunch of excellent tips. And make sure it isn't the same color as the houses around it.

Craftsman=warm earthen tones (think "rocks"), contemporary= cool tones such as white, gray, and purpley-grays (think Space Odyssey). This is simplistic, but a great way to remember what vibe you are shooting for. Rules are made to be broken, but you can't break them with  healthy "upturned nose at the establishment" unless you know the rules in the first place. A great example is the contemporary-turned-Asian. It's warm, and clean, deeply toned, and sparse, but not sterile. Confucius meets Elroy and Astro!

And yes again, these things can definitely be regional. Latitude is mostly the cause, although many would have other things to say about longitude. Colors that look good in Seattle are the same colors that look good in Manhattan...they take sunlight the same beacuse they are close in latitiude. Colors in Tampa are not the colors in Bangor... the sun hits these latitudes completely differently. Northern latitiudes yearn for bright light, because sunlight is weaker there and hits on an angle. Southern latitiudes seek darker, cooler colors because the sun is strong and one instinctually seeks shade in the South. You don't see many true verandahs in Canada. In fact, the homes there don't have wide overhangs over the windows  or awnings, generally speaking. In the south, you can't hardly sell a house without a deep porch. Houses here have shutters, some closed year round.

So, I offer a resounding YES to every one of your questions.

Just remember when everybody has it, nobody wants it.

Michelle

www.featurethisdotdotdot.com

You are welcome, Nancy. My pleasure.

Life is change, as my fortune cookie from last night's dinner reminded me.

I understand your frustration. Keep going to open houses on new construction. The rules are there, but they are constantly getting rewritten. One is never on top of ANYTHING in this type of industry. It's an animal on the move.

And if you want to know what trends are out, that's easier to determine than what's "in". On your day visiting open houses, add a new mobile home sales-lot to your list of stops. If it's in there, you can bet the trend is on it's last legs in the new construction market. There is no mystery in my predictions. I am no trend psychic, I can assure you.

That is why I prefer to try to choose, for my decorating clientele, separate from the trend, and even beyond it's next predecessor. Like the copper I mentioned...it's on the upswing, which means it's got a downswing a-comin, and I want my client to feel in 10 years that the advice I gave them on how to spend their 15 grand was well-planned for their kitchen, and AHEAD of the trend. That is why I choose wrought iron whenever possible for hardware (hinges, fixture, handles, knobs), by and large. It is just super-versatile. Looks excellent as a chandlier in an upper end home dripping with crystals and climbing up the staircase as railing, or right at home with  rustic iron curliques in a cottage, or very sexy and angular in an urban loft.

Consequently, I spray paint everything metal I can get my hands on with flat black spray-paint (primed with a glass etching spray to give it some grip and a bit of authentic texture), and voila, it looks like iron sometimes I rub a bit of champagne colored "rub-n-buff" (picture framing compound) for a teensy whiff of elegant  is-it-siver-or-is-it-gold? pizazz . 70's chrome and 80's brass light fixtures are no problem to rectify. Of course, don't do that with plumbing fixtures, just stuff that doesn't get handled a whole lot. Change the globes or shades, and it is just incredible how funky gets fresh again.

But for staging... it is preferable to decorate on-trend for new construction whenever possible, and that is the oil-rubbed bronze by and large, today, I mean, as of this post, at 6:10 pm CST.

Anyway, like I stated, the answers today are not necessarily the answers for tomorrow!

But it's fun to see what's out there, and play hunter to the beast, even if it is only catch and release.

Michelle